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Friday, July 16, 2010

Homemade Buckwheat Soba Noodles

My darling husband bought me the noodle maker attachment for my kitchen aid mixer for our last anniversary. We are about to celebrate another year and I just figured out I have been doing it all wrong for a year.

I have tried several times to make noodles. I have had some success stories but nothing like my new recipe!!!! :) For some reason this time I added another step and the noodles were a huge success.

The night before, place the flour in a medium size bowl. Pour the water and vinegar/lemon juice into the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until you’ve combined it as much as you can. It will most likely be a crumbly mixture at this point. Using your hands, start kneading the mixture until the water and four starts turning into a ball (at which point you can knead a little on a clean surface outside the bowl). Knead for a few minutes until it forms into a firm ball. If needed, you can add 1-2 tablespoons of more water, or flour. You want a firm, but not dry, or wet ball. 1/2 cup of water to 2 cups of flour was perfect for me.

Clean out your bowl and place the dough ball back into it. Dampen a clean dish towel, and wring dry. Place over the ball of dough to keep it moist while it “soaks”. I also put plastic wrap over the bowl, just to make sure that everything stays moist. Leave the bowl out on the counter top overnight for 12 -24 hours.

When ready to roll out, first place a large pot of water to boil on the stove. While the Japanese don’t salt their pasta water, I like too, as the dough doesn’t contain any salt. So salt it generously.

Meanwhile, divide the dough into four sections. Using arrowroot powder, buckwheat flour, or even white flour (once again, only if you don’t have to be gluten free), flour the rolling surface well. If you have a large wooden cutting board, it’s nice to roll and cut directly on it. Flour the top of the dough and your wooden rolling pin. With gentle, but firm motions, start rolling out the dough. You want to roll it out to about 1/8 inch thickness or even thinner! During this process make sure that you are keep both sides of the dough well floured.

To make it easier to cut, I cut the dough into thirds (about 4 inches tall), and laid them on top of each other (just make sure they are lightly floured to prevent sticking).

Using a sharp knife, cut the noodles into 1/8 inch “slices” all the way down the dough.

Repeat this process with the rest of the dough and let the noodles rest for about 10-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, your pot of water should be ready. Make sure it’s at a rolling boil, then add all of the noodles at once, giving a gentle stir to make sure they don’t stick to each other. It should only take two minutes to cook. When done they should be tender, but still be slightly chewy.

Drain the noodles, making sure that you use a colander with fine holes so the noodles don’t fall through!

You can now rinse with cold water to cool them if you are using it in a cool dish, or keep warm for whatever dish you have planned for it.

Enjoy!

I sauteed 2 zucchini, 2 squash and garlic. Then added fresh basil, homemade pesto and Parmesan to the Buckwheat noodles.